Upper Deck Compendium RCs?

[BlindThomen]

Hey guys!

I'm not sure if this has been covered yet but how do collectors view the Compendium physical cards in regards to being rookie cards?

The main reason I'm asking is that here's a list of rookies who had NHL cards only in Compendium:

2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #818 Saku Maenaelanen
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #821 Jacob Nilsson
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #823 Joseph Gamberdella
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #827 Anthony Richard
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #839 Ryan Graves
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #869 Ben Gleason
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #873 Lukas Radil
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #874 Marcus Hogberg
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #876 Patrick Russell
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #877 Sean Walker
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #879 Bogdan Kiselevich
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #883 Caleb Jones
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #884 Pavel Francouz
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #886 Egor Yakovlev
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #887 Tyler Lewington
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #894 Logan O'Connor
2018-19 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #896 Radim Simek

There's probably players in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 sets too with the similar situation.

- Sauli

EDIT:

Here's the previous issues as well:

2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #833 Hunter Miska
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #836 Chase Balisy
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #848 Will O'Neill
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #853 Justin Kloos
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #858 Ben Thomson
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #863 Justin Auger
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #870 Andrew Crescenzi
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #875 Brady Austin
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #887 Dakota Mermis
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #889 Ken Appleby
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #894 Nick Ellis
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #896 Curtis Valk
2017-18 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #897 Alex Lyon

2016-17 Upper Deck Compendium Blue #591 Viktor Loov

 

[30ranfordfan]

Compendium is an interesting one. It would be EASY for collectors to say "not a real rookie", since the base card doesn't even exist. You have to get a parallel.

I'm going to assume that Upper Deck absolutely considers these to be rookie cards though. Most of these are relatively unknown players, but both Pavel Francouz and Ryan Graves probably would have found themselves in 2019-20 Series 2 if they hadn't already had those Compendium cards.

For me: I would consider all of the cards you listed here to be rookie cards. They might not meet the accepted criteria 100%, but they're close enough for me.

With my all-time Oilers project, there's a few names on that list I do own: Nick Ellis (from 17-18), and Patrick Russell, Joe Gamberdella, and Caleb Jones (18-19).

As of right now: Those are the only cards that were ever made of those players. I could see Jones getting into more sets in the future but that would be it.

 

[MR.M's Cards]

not a rookie card, parallel of a non physical card, parallels are not rookies. comc, who I have to believe gets their info directly from upper deck, calls them a pre rookie card

 

[HammerHawks]

To me, they are NOT rookie cards, though I know it is a gray area and is disputed and misunderstood for good reason.

Also, to Jim's point about the COMC PRC designation, COMC actually isn't super great with those designation tags in general, so I don't read into it at all. For example, they said the Dzingel 16-17 Compendium cards are PRCs even though he has various rookies in 2015-16 products. They then said his 17-18 Compendium cards are rookie year. So I wouldn't read into the COMC tags whatsoever. LOL

 

[Bossy22]

Rookie for me! Just because that is how I think and I like them!

 

[BlindThomen]

The interesting thing is, take Graves and Francouz for example, that it could mean that the 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee cards would then be their rookie cards. But, at least on Beckett or anywhere else, they're not listed as such.
That would mean all these players from Compendium will never actually have a rookie card.

That being said, I would consider them as rookie cards. To me, the Blue parallel of any Compendium card is the base version of the card, not the digital base card. Also, the distribution is definitely worldwide.

- Sauli

 

[steveottfan]

I view these are their official NHL rookies. They're NHL licensed, issued by Upper Deck, feature the player in an NHL uniform and have "Rookie" written clearly on the front. The only issue here is how they're issued, which I see as a traditionalist thing. I don't like to gatekeep the hobby. This is how the card industry is moving and the ecard world I think works well for the super low end rookies like this.

 

[30ranfordfan]

The interesting thing is, take Graves and Francouz for example, that it could mean that the 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee cards would then be their rookie cards. But, at least on Beckett or anywhere else, they're not listed as such.
That would mean all these players from Compendium will never actually have a rookie card.

That being said, I would consider them as rookie cards. To me, the Blue parallel of any Compendium card is the base version of the card, not the digital base card. Also, the distribution is definitely worldwide.

- Sauli

I view these are their official NHL rookies. They're NHL licensed, issued by Upper Deck, feature the player in an NHL uniform and have "Rookie" written clearly on the front. The only issue here is how they're issued, which I see as a traditionalist thing. I don't like to gatekeep the hobby. This is how the card industry is moving and the ecard world I think works well for the super low end rookies like this.

BlindThomen makes a really good point, when you consider Graves & Francouz.

Upper Deck is doing their damnedest to make as many "rookie cards" as possible. Multiple base cards of the same players (Trilogy, various years)... sets released within sets (Exquisite). They pump out as many cards as they can write "Rookie" on as possible.

Those 20-21 OPC cards though, they're not part of the Rookie subset. Why? Because UD already made RCs of them, in compendium.


steveottfan also used a key word in this conversation: traditionalist.

Normally the list of things that must be true: NHL licensed set, base card, first year in which the player has base cards, mass distribution (via packs, boxes, etc).

The nature of those compendium sets challenges a couple of those points. The distribution model is totally different from any other set UD has made. You can ONLY buy them within ePack. Should this matter, when it comes to a "RC" tag ??? I think no. It's different, but it's not like this is some special regional issue. The cards are available globally, and you still buy packs, boxes, and cases.

Really, the only knock against these cards being considered Rookie Cards, is that they're parallels.... but in this case, they're parallels of cards that don't physically exist. IMO, I consider the Blue versions of these cards as the base, that you needed 10 digital photos to get.

They certainly break some traditions, but I think that's okay.

 

[DCUnited96]

Francouz could still turn out to be an interesting RC story despite his (injured) Dallas series performance. He was pretty solid prior to lockdown. Local Press indicates the Avs plan to stick with Grubauer/Francouz.

He will also have a 19-20 Topps Now Sticker just to add to the confusion!

 

[steveottfan]

I think Upper Deck answered our question with the new Francouz OPC card. No rookie designation on the card, just a regular base card. Francouz's rookie is the Compedium. Could be a good card to pickup as a possible sleeper card if he amounts to anything.

 

[Ironman Indy]

What if...

I had this conversation the other day as I need a Francouz for the goalie RC set and

what if..

Upper Deck is saving him 19-20 for Premier and/or Chronology 2 and/or The Cup


what if...

they made 20-21 OPC a base card knowing that he can't be a rookie 2 years in a row?

 

[DCUnited96]

To frame 2018-19 Compendium Blue set in a traditionalist sense might be to define it a 1200.- USD (600.- per series) "Factory Set." However, it's really a stretch to describe an online only parallel as a tradition RC.

My math puts it at 4.7 base cards per 12 box case, so a little over two perfectly collated cases to get the job done to build the Blue set of each series. (270.- USD per case).

Even with Francouz and Graves already having significantly more than a cup-of-coffee careers, it would still take a bigger story to get the debate really rolling. Sadly, even with so few cards out there, demand has not outpaced supply.